Sinterklaas in Den Haag

After exploring the cities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, the weekend provided an opportunity to spend some time with Renske's family.

Friday night, we celebrated Sinterklaasavond with her parents, younger sister, aunt and uncle and grandmother at her grandmother's house in Den Haag (or The Hague, if you will). The festivities consisted of an eleborate gift-exchange game. Everyone contributes three small, rather random gifts to the pile, and people take turns throwing dice, determining whether they should 'grab a present from the pile' 'steal a present from someone else' 'exhange a present with the person on your left' etc. The whole thing was accompanied by excessive amounts of Sinterklaas candy, extensive discussion about what the actual rules are actually supposed to be and who was going to end up with that purse that was obviously way over the 5 euro price limit, put in by Renske's uncle simply because he likes to sabotage things. Renske's trophies of the night: a bananaholder and a role of toiletpaper printed in Delft blue. Nicholas is now the proud owner of a spoon with a cow on it, and a set of bird-shaped Christmas ornaments.

Saturday morning we went for a run on the rather windy Den Haag beach. The weather so far has been classically Dutch, meaning chilly and lots of rain, but this was a better day and we decided to take advantage of that. After lunch in honor of Renske's dad's birthday, the two of us together with Renske's sister visited the town of Delft. Delft is a small town inbetween Den Haag and Rotterdam, known for its picturesque old city center. And Delft's blue. Obviously. We visited the Old Church (burial site for the Dutch royal family), the New Church (looked older than the Old Church), and spent some time looking for the Middle Aged Church, which had turned out to have bought a convertible and left for Southern France with a hot blonde chick. After an oliebol (Dutch ball of fried dough, eaten around New Year's) it was time to head back home.

-Renske